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American Bird Conservancy is dedicated to conserving birds and their habitats throughout the Americas.* We are also committed to measuring and reporting on our results. This Conservation Impact Scorecard provides a summary of ABC’s cumulative conservation actions and outcomes, organized according to the main components of our Strategic Bird Conservation Framework. Not all programs lend themselves easily to quantitative scoring, and we believe that it is important that we not allow ease of measurability to drive priority-setting away from important but less easily-counted actions (such as training, capacity-building, and sustainability). Other critical aspects, such as our commitment to our mission, our integrity, and our dedication will likely never be measurable in quantitative terms, but we hope that these nevertheless shine through in this scorecard. Working in partnership is the bedrock of ABC’s organizational philosophy, and ABC is one of multiple partners engaged in almost all of these activities. Listed outcomes and actions are those in which ABC played a leading or significant role in the particular accomplishment. We are grateful to all the partners we have worked with over the past 24 years and want to acknowledge that ABC’s accomplishments would not be possible without the collective efforts of these groups. Please see our corresponding 2017 Annual Report, as well as our previous Annual Reports, for lists of partners and additional results. A shorter version of this Scorecard is also available, or you can browse our web version.

* ABC project areas include Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific Territories.

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Strategic Bird Conservation Framework ABC works to prevent the extinction of the most ENDANGERED BIRDS by helping partner groups to establish and sustain protected reserves for the rarest species in Latin America; supporting the restoration of habitat for endemic Hawaiian forest birds; and protecting key seabird colonies from invasive species and other threats. ABC also monitors implementation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act to ensure all listed birds, and those that need to be listed, are properly conserved. READ MORE. ABC works to prevent BIRDS OF CONSERVATION CONCERN from becoming endangered by engaging landowners and partner groups to help improve the management of millions of acres of land in the U.S. and internationally. ABC identifies areas (BirdScapes) where conservation opportunities overlap with key habitat for birds, and develops and implements management practices coupled with incentives to ensure that bird habitat is well protected, managed, or conserved. READ MORE. ABC works to prevent or mitigate THREATS TO ALL BIRDS by working with policymakers, partner groups, and the private sector to develop and implement solutions to large-scale causes of bird mortality, along with precedent-setting or critical regional bird problems. This work involves lobbying, grassroots outreach, the development of new technologies, and occasional legal action to resolve particularly intractable problems. READ MORE. ABC helps partners BUILD CONSERVATION CAPACITY to sustainably tackle the critical issues faced by birds across the Western Hemisphere, from financial and technical support to knowledge sharing across a broad front of management and conservation programs. (To be addressed in future version of the Scorecard.)

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ENDANGERED BIRDS Protected Area Creation and Sustainability to Save Species

SUMMARY: There have been 10 bird extinctions in the Americas over the past 50 years (most in Hawaii). Today, the majority of endangered birds outside the U.S. have at least some populations in protected areas, but significant gaps remain, and only 15% of

the most threatened species can be considered effectively protected from extinction at present. In the U.S., more endangered birds are increasing than are declining, but Hawaiian species in particular need much more recovery support.

OVERALL STATUS OF BIRDS CONSERVATION OUTCOMES ACTION HIGHLIGHTS

(Much of the data generated in this section was derived from BirdLife International’s DataZone. Please visit their site for more specifics.) There have been 10 bird species extinctions in the Americas in the past 50 years (most of these in Hawaii): Kauai Akialoa, Nightingale Reed-warbler, Colombian Grebe, Least Vermilion Flycatcher, Bishop's Oo, Guam Flycatcher, Bridled White-eye, Kamao, Atitlan Grebe, and Kauai Oo. Five more bird species have been declared extinct in the wild, but still survive in captivity: Alagoas Curassow, Socorro Dove, Guam Rail, Guam Kingfisher, and Hawaiian Crow. (Recent

ABC prioritizes its work to halt extinctions by identifying the species at greatest risk, based on the IUCN Red List and the U.S. Endangered Species Act list, and then works with partners to identify conservation opportunities and to develop field-based conservation projects, species by species. We especially prioritize sites where Endangered or Critically Endangered species are confined to a single site (Alliance for Zero Extinction or AZE sites). Of the seven bird species extinctions considered to have been averted since 1994 in the Americas, ABC has provided significant support to efforts to prevent four:

1. Junin Grebe 2. Lear’s Macaw 3. Grenada Dove 4. Pale-headed Brushfinch

ABC supported ECOAN’s community outreach and pollution control programs to help conserve the Junin Grebe in Peru. ABC and AZA supported the development of a vaccine to inoculate captive California Condors against West Nile Virus, and ABC pressed successfully for a ban on lead ammunition in condor range counties in California, since condors scavenge on hunted deer carcasses.

With Biodiversitas, ABC helped expand the Canudos Biological Station in Brazil to 3,649 acres, helping the Lear’s Macaw (shown) population grow to 1,300, and downgrading the macaw from Critical to Endangered. ABC helped to oppose a hotel

development, advocated for habitat conservation, and is helping the Grenada Dove Conservation Program control invasive mongooses by providing support for traps to protect the Grenada Dove.

ABC supported a CECIA expedition that rediscovered the Pale-headed Brushfinch and helped Fundacíon Jocotoco to acquire the 400-acre Yunguilla

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ENDANGERED BIRDS reintroduction efforts are providing hope for the latter species.) BirdLife International scientists believe that an additional seven bird extinctions have been averted by conservation intervention since 1994 (the year ABC was founded).

ABC also played a contributory role in the case of a further species, the California Condor.

Reserve in Ecuador, which has helped the brushfinch increase to more than 200 birds, downgrading the species from Critical to Endangered.

According to BirdLife International scientists, there are currently 290 IUCN-Red Listed Endangered (EN) and Critically Endangered (CR) bird species in the Americas. Habitat loss is considered the principal threat for 214 of these. Forty-three of these have 500 or more individuals in one or more protected area/s affording those species significant protection against imminent extinction; 204 have some protected populations, but 10 have no protected populations at all.

The remaining 76 species are primarily threatened by other factors, such as invasive species, for which equivalent extent of protection metrics are not yet available.

Of the 214 EN and CR species primarily threatened by habitat loss, ABC-supported projects (such as bird reserves) currently provide at least some protected habitat for 82 species (38%). Extinction risk is believed to have been significantly reduced for 14 of these species so far. ABC has contributed significantly to the conservation of 11 species that are estimated to have at least 500 individuals within protected areas:

1. Speckle-chested Piculet 2. Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager 3. Baudo Guan 4. Boa Nova Tapaculo 5. Santa Marta Bush-Tyrant 6. Santa Marta Parakeet 7. Santa Marta Sabrewing 8. Royal Sunangel 9. La Selle Thrush 10. Lulu’s Tody-Flycatcher 11. Black-fronted Piping-Guan

With partners, ABC has supported the acquisition/protection of 1,052,466 acres of land in 90 protected areas in 14 countries, with 32 partners. We have also supported significant habitat restoration efforts, including the planting of 5,617,865 trees and shrubs in reserves and buffer areas, and helped to fence a total of 94 acres at three sites to protect threatened seabirds from predation. In total, 2,900 bird species have been recorded in ABC-supported reserves (66% of all bird species found in the Americas).

ABC worked with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the governments of Brazil, Chile, and Mexico to make government protection of additional EN and CR species confined to single sites (AZE sites) a global policy priority.

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ENDANGERED BIRDS A further three ABC focal species have 100% of their range protected, but still number fewer than 500 individuals:

1. Pale-headed Brushfinch 2. Araripe Manakin 3. Stresemann’s Bristlefront

ABC currently works on 23 of the species threatened primarily by invasive species or other factors ― mostly seabirds and Hawaiian birds.

With GECI, ABC has supported the removal of cats from Socorro Island, Mexico, to save the Townsend’s Shearwater from extinction. ABC has supported work that has led to the discovery or rediscovery of eight bird species including the Táchira Antpitta and Yellow-eared Parrot. ABC has supported nest box programs for seven threatened species including the Blue-throated Macaw and Grey-breasted Parakeet (the latter helping fledge 841 chicks of this EN species).

The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) has different species selection criteria to the IUCN Red List, and it also includes subspecies and populations. ABC uses both lists to help set priorities and to track conservation progress. In 2016, an ABC report documented that 38 ESA-listed species were increasing, 15 were stable, 24 declining, and 17 were of uncertain status or extinct (most of these being Hawaiian species already close to extinction in 1973 when the Act was passed). The report also revealed that 29 species showed status improvements over the most recent prior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assessment (conducted in

Of the 21 ESA-listed bird species that ABC has worked on most directly, the ABC report indicated that eight were considered to be increasing:

1. Short-tailed Albatross 2. California Condor 3. Interior Least Tern 4. Piping Plover 5. San Clemente Loggerhead

Shrike 6. Southwest Willow Flycatcher 7. Kirtland’s Warbler 8. San Clemente Bell’s Sparrow

Three were considered stable, while eight were considered to be declining in population. Two recently listed species were not assessed by the report. (See the report.)

With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), ABC helped translocate 50 Millerbirds from Nihoa to Laysan to start a second “insurance” population, which has since expanded to more than 200 birds.

With Pacific Rim Conservation and FWS, ABC helped translocate 50 Hawaiian Petrels (shown) and 45 Newell’s Shearwaters to a protected site inside a predator-proof fence on Kauai. On behalf of ABC and several partners, Earthjustice sued the Kaua‘i Island Utility

Cooperative, leading to mitigation for the killing of Newell’s Shearwaters at its power lines. Through litigation, ABC also encouraged resorts and businesses on Kauai to shield or eliminate lights that disorient shearwaters. Mitigation funding for light impacts that could not be eliminated have gone towards colony protection. With Pacific Rim Conservation, ABC successfully petitioned to add the 'Akikiki, the 'Akeke'e to the list of birds protected by the Endangered Species

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ENDANGERED BIRDS 2010), and that only five had deteriorated.

(Note that there is considerable overlap between the IUCN Red List, the U.S. Endangered Species Act list, and the U.S. WatchList, so the number of species ABC provides as ones it works on in these categories is not cumulative.)

Act. Multi-partner petitions that ABC was party to also succeeded in gaining ESA protection for the Red Knot. ABC also pressed for the listing of the Streaked Horned Lark. ABC helped generate $3 million in federal support for Hawaiian birds through “State of the Birds” funding; ABC is helping multiple partners to restore habitat and is removing/controlling invasive species to protect Hawaiian forest birds on Kauai, Maui, Molokai, and the Big Island.

ABC successfully advocated for horseshoe crab harvest restrictions in DE, MD, NJ, and VA, and for the creation of a crab sanctuary at the mouth of Delaware Bay to protect a main food source for Red Knots: horseshoe crab eggs. ABC filed and later settled a law suit to ensure the removal of a feral cat colony threatening Piping Plovers at Jones Beach State Park, NY. ABC promulgated the best science to support improved conservation management decisions for both the Northern Spotted Owl and Interior Least Tern. ABC pressed for successful recovery actions to save the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike which has since benefitted from a captive-breeding effort that includes San Diego Zoo, FWS, the U.S. Navy, the Institute for Wildlife Studies, and the Soil Ecology and Restoration Group.

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BIRDS OF CONSERVATION CONCERN

Delivering Habitat Management and Landowner Incentives Across the Continent SUMMARY: While waterfowl populations have responded very positively to conservation action, most other groups of birds are still

showing significant long-term declines, and a substantial increase in resources is needed to help these species follow waterfowl back to robust population levels. Many effective habitat conservation projects are demonstrating that this can be done, and some bird

groups (such as grassland birds) are showing recent signs of positive response as a result.

OVERALL STATUS OF BIRDS CONSERVATION OUTCOMES ACTION HIGHLIGHTS Breeding Bird Survey and Christmas Bird Count data shows that since 1970, nearly all major groups of native wild birds have shown significant declines in population, cumulating in an approximate two billion overall loss of individual birds from the breeding population. These groups include: shorebirds with more than a 50% loss, grassland birds a 49% loss, aerial insectivores a 32% loss, Arctic tundra species a 31% loss, western forest birds a 27% loss, arid land birds a 23% loss, boreal forest birds a 20% loss, and eastern forest birds a 15% loss. Only one group shows a gain in population: wetland birds which show an overall 38% gain.

ABC works to conserve bird species and subspecies of conservation concern as defined by the U.S. WatchList, and to aims to maximize the abundance and diversity of bird species – including the phenomenon of mass bird migration - by conserving habitat that benefits multiple bird species. To accomplish this, ABC has initially identified 52 priority BirdScapes through which we are delivering, or plan to deliver, large landscape-scale habitat conservation projects to stabilize and restore migratory and other bird populations. (ABC is currently active in 21 of these BirdScapes.) These include breeding, stopover, and nonbreeding areas. ABC plans to expand conservation across the broader landscape by adding additional BirdScapes and partners over time, and by piloting new approaches to conservation through habitat management recommendations coupled with financial incentives to leverage this work to the necessary scale.

(Please see a map of these highlights below.) Northern Great Plains – Northern Prairie BirdScape. Total Area: 19 million acres. Flagship species: Long-billed Curlew

− Ten-year overall conservation goal: 869,000 acres in improved management.

− ABC and partners’ direct contribution to goal: 320,000 acres by 2024.

− Conserved to date: 18,500 acres. − Key partners: NRCS, NGPJV, NFWF, FWS,

MFWP, NDGF, SDGFP, WGFD. Chihuahuan Grasslands – Valles Centrales BirdScape. Total area: 4.85 million acres.

− Ten-year overall conservation goal: 511,640 acres in improved management.

− ABC and partners’ direct contribution to goal: 334,500 acres by 2022.

− Conserved to date: 163,565 acres. − Key partner: Pronatura Noreste.

Minnesota - North Woods BirdScape. Total area: 6.5 million acres. Flagship species: Golden-winged Warbler

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BIRDS OF CONSERVATION CONCERN Within these broad groupings, the U.S. WatchList further identifies 270 specific bird species and subspecies as being of particular conservation concern. Of these, ABC has so far made 65 species and subspecies priorities for program action.

In the U.S., ABC works extensively, though not exclusively, through and with Migratory Bird Joint Ventures (JVs) and their partners to conserve bird habitats. The total area with improved management conducted by JV partners in JVs where ABC staff play a significant role in planning and/or conservation delivery from 2007 to 2017 was over 6.4 million acres in the U.S. We also work with public and private landowners, and with forest management companies through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative to maintain and improve forest habitat for birds. Due to space considerations, we provide specific metrics for six example BirdScapes that link from north to south across the lifecycles of representative “flagship” birds. BirdScapes typically include areas of pristine core habitat, areas that need restoration, areas under threat of habitat conversion, and areas in production that can be managed to contribute to bird conservation objectives. (Shown: Cerulean Warbler, one of our focal species.) To see a complete map of BirdScapes please see our spring 2017 magazine.

− Ten-year overall conservation goal: 125,000 acres in improved management.

− ABC and partners’ direct contribution to goal: 114,500 acres by 2024.

− Conserved to date: 43,301 acres. − Key partners: FWS, MNDNR, MNCLD,

NFWF, NRCS. Nicaragua - Northern Nicaraguan Highlands BirdScape. Total area: 1.15 million acres.

− Ten-year overall conservation goal: 164,343 acres.

− ABC and partners’ direct contribution to goal: 32,846 acres by 2022.

− Conserved to date: 3,658 acres. − Key partner: WCS.

Pennsylvania - Poconos BirdScape. Total area: 462,959 acres. Flagship species: Wood Thrush

− Ten-year overall conservation goal: 175,000 acres.

− ABC and partners’ direct contribution: 37,000 acres by 2025.

− Conserved to date: 17,146 acres. − Key partners: IUP, PGC, PDCNR, NRCS,

AMJV. Guatemala - Conservation Coast BirdScape. Total area: 1.21 million acres.

− Ten-year overall conservation goal: 250,000 acres.

− ABC and partners’ direct contribution: 121,031 acres by 2027. Conserved to date: 10,154 acres.

− Key partner: FUNDAECO.

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ABC’S BIRDSCAPES APPROACH:

SIX EXAMPLES

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THREATS TO ALL BIRDS

Working to Find Solutions with Policymakers and the Private Sector

SUMMARY: Despite concern from the public, substantial challenges remain in reducing and mitigating many of the most significant sources of bird mortality. Changes in lighting on communication towers and the marking of electrical lines to stop collisions are just two examples of what can be done at little cost to industry, but overall, bird concerns are still under-valued, and the bird community

must unite to encourage and incentivize positive change.

OVERALL STATUS OF BIRDS CONSERVATION OUTCOMES ACTION HIGHLIGHTS

Estimates indicate that the following threats each kill more than 500,000 birds per year in the U.S. and are not adequately mitigated or compensated:

• Feral and owned cat predation: 2.4B (MAJOR ABC PROGRAM)

ABC prioritizes its threat reduction work based on scale and urgency of threat, perceived opportunity for progress, whether others are already tackling the issue, whether we can provide special expertise or assistance, and whether sufficient resources are available. Due to the large numbers and broad ranges involved, estimated changes in bird mortality due to conservation interventions are currently still too approximate to be especially useful. ABC's campaign has slowed the rate of spread of feral cat colonies and has encouraged thousands of people to pledge to keep their cats indoors. We have also stimulated a change in the national conversation about the impact of cats on birds through media coverage and other outreach efforts.

ABC has communicated the cats indoors message to millions of Americans through social and traditional media. Since 2013, ABC has also intervened successfully on 26 state bills to protect birds from the expansion of ineffective cat management programs. ABC’s glass collisions work has certified 17 glass and window mitigation products as bird-friendly, and 650,000 square feet of bird-friendly glass installation has already been reported to ABC. ABC contributed to the establishment of a LEED credit for bird-friendly building design and has trained more than 1,000 architects in bird-friendly design. Bird-friendly building ordinances and guidelines have been enacted in 12 jurisdictions, and a federal bird-safe building bill has been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate. Through science-based advocacy and legal action, ABC has been instrumental in the cancellation or restriction of aldicarb, brodifacoum, carbofuran, diazinon, disulfoton, chlorfenapyr, endosulfan, ethyl parathion, phorate, fenthion, monocrotophos, bromodialone, difethialone, and rozol. ABC also engaged in a successful emergency campaign to protect Swainson’s Hawks from monocrotophos poisoning in Argentina.

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THREATS TO ALL BIRDS • Collisions with home and building

windows: 600M (MAJOR ABC PROGRAM)

• Collisions with vehicles: 200M • Pesticide and toxics poisoning: 72M

(ABC PROGRAM) • Collisions with power lines: 36.5M

(ABC PROGRAM) • Lead poisoning: 12M • Collisions with communication towers:

6.8M (ABC PROGRAM) • Electrocution on power lines: 6.7M • Deliberate killing by animal control:

1.4M • Mining claim marker tube entrapment:

1M (ABC PROGRAM) • Oil and waste water pit ensnarement:

750K • Collisions with wind turbines: 500K

(MAJOR ABC PROGRAM) Additionally, oil spills and fishery bycatch kill fewer (but still large numbers) of high conservation priority seabirds such as albatrosses, petrels, and murrelets. This table currently includes only mortality-based threats. Habitat-based and climate- related threats will be added in future as comparable impact data become available.

Reduction of bird collisions with window glass is a long-term effort, but the first critical steps by ABC to engage architects, glass manufacturers, and the public is well underway. Bird mortality caused by pesticides was likely reduced after the cancellation and restriction of organophosphates and carbamates advocated by ABC. Recently, this progress has probably been offset by the advent of neonicotinoid pesticides which are toxic to birds and are also contributing to a loss in insects that birds feed on. Bird mortality caused by lighted communication towers has almost certainly been reduced significantly because of an ABC lawsuit and outreach that led to large numbers of towers changing to strobe lights that are less likely to lure birds to their deaths. Large numbers of mining claim markers are being removed by volunteers and claim owners with encouragement from ABC and the Bureau of Land Management. Wind turbine-related bird mortality is increasing due to the expansion of

With Earthjustice and the Forest Conservation Council, ABC won a lawsuit resulting in the Federal Communications Commission working to reduce bird mortality caused by the lighting on tall communication towers. Their new policy now requires steady burning lights that attract birds to be replaced with strobes, reducing bird mortality by an estimated 70%. The transition is rapidly making progress, with nine percent of the remaining un-mitigated towers changing their lights in the past year. ABC has also fought specific tower construction proposals including halting a tower close to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary - one of the worst possible locations in the U.S.

ABC filed and won a law suit to better protect eagles from wind turbine strikes by ensuring third party oversight for eagle mortality monitoring. ABC filed a law suit with Black Swamp Bird Observatory that succeeded in halting a wind turbine project at Camp Perry, OH, in the epicenter of the greatest songbird migration corridor in the U.S. ABC helped to stop or modify seven additional wind developments in MO, ID, MD, VT, TX, and two Canadian provinces. ABC is working

with International Crane Foundation and industry partners to retrofit powerlines in the Whooping Crane migration corridor to increase their visibility to migrating cranes. ABC successfully advocated for the inclusion of seabird protections in the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and for albatross protection measures in U.S.

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THREATS TO ALL BIRDS wind power development. Despite this, ABC has encouraged the adoption of mitigation strategies and has helped to halt or mitigate at least eight major wind projects.

In addition to countering specific threats, ABC works to support overall federal funding for birds, to protect bedrock laws such as the ESA and MBTA, and to support good ― and oppose bad ― legislation for birds.

Alaskan and Hawaiian longline fisheries that resulted in a c. 90% reduction is seabird bycatch. ABC successfully advocated for the removal of lead paint from buildings on Midway that was poisoning Laysan Albatross chicks there, and, with Equilibrio Azul, helped develop new line-setting technology to protect Waved Albatrosses in Ecuadorian fisheries. With Seattle Audubon, National Audubon Society, and Defenders of Wildlife, ABC filed a lawsuit that won protections for Caspian Terns in the Columbia River Estuary, OR. ABC advocated for the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act and for its funding by Congress. The Act has provided $62.2M in grants to bird conservation projects since 2002, 75% of which conserved migratory birds outside the U.S. During 2017 alone, ABC gained traditional news and social media coverage for its main threat-focused programs: cats, glass, pesticides, and wind power that had a maximum reach of 454,470,320 potential media impressions in the U.S. These break down as: Cats 139M, Glass 158M, Pesticides 25M, Wind 131M. From 2014-2017, ABC supporters signed action alerts on a variety of policy issues a total of 202,394 times to issue messages to congress and other decision-makers.

American Bird Conservancy is a top-rated 501(c)(3) charity. For more information, please visit us online at abcbirds.org, contact us at 202-234-7181, or email us. This version of the ABC Scorecard produced Nov. 30, 2018